Report Due
by Lolly4Holly
Summary: Somehow, Grissom manages to find a space in his busy schedule to help his daughter with her report. GSR. Another in my short series of Grissom, Sara and their daughters, Charlotte and Abigail. One-Shot. COMPLETE


**Report Due**

**Author: Lolly4Holly**

**Pairings: GSR - Sara and Grissom**

**Summary: Somehow, Grissom manages to find a space in his busy schedule to help his daughter with her report.**

**Another in my short series of Grissom Sara and their daughters, Charlotte and Abigail. Thank you for reading and reviewing them so far, I hope you enjoy this one!**

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"But I have to have my report done by tomorrow and you promised me last week that you would help me." Hurrying down the stairs behind her father, Charlotte followed him through to the front room, getting in his way as he tried to pack his suitcase for the conference he was getting ready to leave for. She had no idea where it was or why he needed to go, but she didn't want him to go for any period of time. "Daddy, I need your help to finish this report."

"It's your homework, Charlotte. I don't have to help you do anything, you're supposed to do it on your own." He lifted his daughter out of the way, going over his notes for the conference. He glanced up again a few minutes later, realising his daughter had gone, but his wife was stood in the doorway with her hands on her hips. "What?"

"She just wants you to read it and tell her what you think of it, Gil." Sara scolded the man, angry at him herself for leaving them again. "You're going to be gone for two weeks. You know they hate it when you're gone for that long."

"I don't do homework for my students." He pointed out to her, dropping some files into the open suitcase he had on the coffee table.

"This is different. She's your daughter and she's only eight, not in her twenties or thirties like your students. She just wants you to read it, before you leave us for two weeks again, Gil." She never thought of herself as the maternal sort before her first child was born, but she had always thought that her husband was good with children from how he was with them at the lab.

With a disappointed sigh, Sara turned on her heels, making her way back to the kitchen to continue decorating cupcakes with her youngest.

"Oh my goodness, could you possibly fit any more M&amp;Ms on that one?" She sarcastically remarked, giggling as she learnt against the counter beside, Abigail.

"They keep falling off." The child caught a blue one as it bounced onto the counter. "They taste nice though."

"Oh that's good." Her mother giggled, grabbing for the icing mix. "You're going to need more icing underneath them. They're not going to stick to the spongy cake by themselves otherwise. One of my foster mother's taught me how to do this when I was about the same age as your sister, Charlotte." She grabbed a fresh cupcake, smoothing a decent amount of icing across the surface, before she dipped it into the sprinkles pot. "See."

"How come I don't have a foster Mom?" Abigail curiously asked her, dunking her cupcake into the sprinkles a little less gracefully.

"Well, because you have a real Mommy and Daddy that love you very much. You don't need a foster mother." Sara retrieved her daughter's cupcake from the pot, picking out all the little bits of cake that had broken off. "Foster mother's are there for children that don't have a real Mommy or Daddy. Sometimes they do have a mother or father somewhere, but they can't be there to look after them for whatever reason."

"What reason?" She continued to quiz her mother.

"We better hurry up and decorate the rest of these cakes." Her mother tried to distract her, not willing to tell her daughters her whole story just yet. They knew she was in care most of her childhood and that their Grandmother was sick, that was why they didn't see her, but she didn't want them to know anymore than that until they were old enough to understand every aspect of her childhood. "Nana Betty is going to be here soon."

Abigail quickly forgot about the subject, grabbing for another cupcake to smoother some icing over the top. She slid herself off her seat as soon as she was done, holding her sticky hands either side of her, while her mother quickly boxed up all the finished cupcakes.

"Mommy, can I go outside?"

"We need to wash those hands first." Sara loosened the ties to the apron over her daughter's dress, dropping it onto the counter, before she lifted her up to the sink to wash her sticky little fingers. She turned her head towards the front door, catching her husband getting ready to leave. "Hey..." She quickly dried her hands, carrying her daughter with her to see him. "You're not going to leave without saying goodbye, are you?"

"No, I was just getting my things ready." Grissom pressed a kiss to his wife's cheek, lifting his youngest from her arms. He hugged her tightly against his chest for a moment, before he pressed a kiss to her forehead. "You be a good girl for Mommy, okay? Eat all your vegetables, go straight to sleep when Mommy tells you and I'll see you at the end of next week."

"O-kay." His little girl gave out a soft sigh, resting her little head against the man's shoulder. "I will miss you, Daddy."

"I'll miss you too, my dear." He lowered her to the floor, sending her off into the front room to play with her toys. "Conference starts at four tomorrow. I'll call you just before I go in... give you the number for my hotel room." He pulled his jacket on from beside the door, before he pulled his wife into his arms for a proper goodbye. "Be careful..." He whispered between kisses, feeling his wife clutching him a little tighter than normal. "Call me if you need me. I'll keep my cell on me."

"Okay." She sealed one last kiss to his lips, wishing he didn't have to go. "Charlotte!" She called up the stairs to her daughter. "Daddy's leaving now. Do you want to come and say goodbye?"

"No." They heard a muffled answer.

"Just as stubborn as you." Sara rolled her eyes at her husband. "Charlotte! Daddy won't be here for two weeks. Come and say goodbye."

Charlotte eventually emerged at the top of the stairs, slowly making her way down them towards her father. She stopped two steps up from him, making her father stretch his arms out to her to lift her down.

As soon as he lifted her down, Grissom clutched his little girl tightly against his chest, pressing a kiss to her hairline. "I love you, sweetheart." He wasn't expecting her to say goodbye to him this time, knowing she'd probably stay mad at him for the next week or so, before he was back in her good graces. He set her down on the stairs once he had fulfilled his hug with her, collecting up his things from the doorway.

"Bye." Sara waved to him, giving him a smile as he took his things down the driveway towards his car.

"Mommy. Mommy, I need you!" Abigail called out to her.

"Wave to Daddy, honey. You won't see him for two weeks." Sara ushered her eldest towards the door, while she tended to her four year olds needs in the next room.

Charlotte watched her father's car slowly backing out of the driveway, giving him a wave as he looked back at the house. She made the familiar sign of 'I love you' with her other hand, something her grandmother first taught her to sign. Abigail was still too young to understand most signs, so it was their own private sign between herself and her father. The man immediately wound down his window, holding his hand out the window to sign 'I love you' back to her, before he made his way off to the airport.

The car park was almost empty when he arrived, so he managed to get himself parked and through security within a few minutes. He sat down in the waiting area with the other passengers, going through his notes for the conference in his briefcase, checking to make sure that he had everything.

When he got to the last few pages though, he stumbled across his daughter's school report that was titled 'A Day out with my Daddy by Charlotte Grissom.'

Setting his conference notes aside, Grissom adjusted the reading glasses on his face, reading all about their day out at the zoo from his daughter's perspective. She described him as a walking encyclopaedia of information at one point as he seemed to know everything about every animal that they approached, but he didn't seem know a whole lot about kids. He read on to find out why she thought that, realising he had rushed them around the zoo with all of his facts that they missed out on all the kids activities on the way; seeing the baby animals, family photo opportunities with the owls and a chance to feed some the animals.

He glanced up as he heard them announcing his plane for boarding, really wishing that he didn't have to go. He reluctantly collected up all of his things, following the other passengers towards the desk with their tickets in their hands.

When it was his turn, he almost handed the woman his daughter's report, giving her a smile as he started searching his jacket pockets for the ticket. He paused as soon as he found it, deciding not to hand it over as he read the last few lines of Charlotte's report.

'I would love to go on days out with my Daddy more, but he has a busy job that always comes first.'

Grissom felt a chill running down his spine, realising he had created that thought in her head. It wasn't true though. Sara, Charlotte and Abigail always came first. They were his family. His life. He loved them more than anything in the world. More than he ever thought possible. He couldn't let his daughter believe that she came second to his job.

"Sir, do you have your ticket?"

"Sorry, I changed my mind." He backed away from the desk, making his way through the queue that had formed behind him. He made a quick exit back to his car, practically racing home through the traffic to reach his wife and two daughters again.

"Mommy!" Abigail slid off the end of their slide in the back yard, skipping towards the back door, where her mother was sat texting on her phone. "Mommy, Daddy's car is in the driveway." She informed her mother, following the woman through to the front door to check if it was really his car. "It is. It's Daddy. Mommy, Daddy's home again."

"I see." Sara agreed with her, waiting for her husband to climb out. "Did you forget something? You should be on the plane by now." She tapped her watch as he scrambled over his things to get out the car.

"I can catch a later flight." The man breathlessly approached the door.

With his daughter's report in his hands, Grissom ran past the two of them into the house, searching for Charlotte. He stumbled up the last step of the stairs, giving his wife a reassuring smile, before he disappeared off down the hall towards the girls bedroom. He spotted his little girl laying on her stomach across the middle of her bed, flipping through the pages of her latest crime novels. He tapped his knuckles against her bedroom door to get her attention, slowly making his way over to her bed.

"Someone slipped this into my briefcase. Any idea who?" He knelt down beside her bed, placing her report down in front of her. "You know, you missed out the butterfly enclosure and our trip through the owls habitat when it was feeding time." He reminded her, still feeling a little out of breath after the race to get home. "You can't miss out the part with the owl eating that mouse."

Charlotte rested against her elbow on the bed, looking up at her father beside her. "You read it?"

"Of course I read it." He brushed her long hair back over her shoulder, looking into her big beautiful eyes. She had eyes just like him, but her facial features were so similar to her mother's that she was almost a miniature version of the woman he loved. "It's better than anything I've ever read from any of my students. You got one part wrong though. My job never comes before you. You, your mother and your sister... you're the most important things in my world. I'd quit my job in a heartbeat to make you happy. C'mere," He slid his hands beneath her arms, lifting her off the bed into his embrace. "I love you, Charlotte. I may not know a whole lot about kids, but I thought that's why I have you to teach me."

His daughter immediately smiled at him, resting her head against the man's shoulder. "Can you help me finish it then?"

"I certainly can. We could even go to the zoo again. Have another father, daughter day out. Just the two of us. We can get a chance to do all the things we never got to before."

"But my report is due tomorrow. And you never have time."

"For you my dear, I have all the time in the world."


End file.
